Susan Smith: Reps don't have best interest in mind with vaccines

To The Daily Sun,

On Feb. 19, the NH House voted on HB 1811, repealing immunization requirements for children. Outbreaks of preventable diseases are traceable to unvaccinated individuals. Today, we’re seeing new cases of diseases preventable with vaccination. This bill would have opened the door for more unvaccinated people to potentially contract and spread diseases that cause serious health consequences and potential life long disability. Removing requirements for childhood vaccinations exposes not only the children attending school to contagious, dangerous, and deadly diseases; their families, the staff, the very young, elderly and immunocompromised individuals they are around are also exposed.

Despite overwhelming factual testimony in public hearings by educated health professionals about the harm this bill would cause, Republicans on the Health & Human Services and Elderly Affairs Committee voted for this bill and moved it to the floor for a House vote.

Fortunately this bill failed to pass because 192 members of the House put their constituents' health and wellbeing above partisan politics.

Of the 13 members of the Belknap County Delegation who voted; eight voted for this harmful bill: Glen Aldrich, Steven Bogert, Russell Dumais, Juliet Harvey-Bolia, Tom Ploszaj, Lisa Freeman, Paul Terry, and Travis Toner.

These people (they don’t deserve to be called representatives as they don’t represent their constituents) were willing to risk everyone’s health to blindly follow their flawed and irrational party line. Shame on them.

They have made it clear what they value and it isn’t their constituents.

We will all remember in November what they really stand for.

Susan Smith

Gilford